IN MEMORY OF GEORGE J. CRAIG

It is with a great sense of loss that we share the news that one of the Alligator Farm’s dearest friends, George J. Craig, passed away in November 2024 in Cairnes, Australia at the age of 94.

George would be best known to St. Augustine residents as the captor of our famous crocodile Gomek. In 1968, natives in a remote region of Papua New Guinea, knowing George to be a famous hunter, requested that he seek to capture a large croc on the Fly River that had become adept at overturning canoes and attacking the occupants. George was successful, and he transported Gomek 400 miles down the Fly River to his home on the Island of Daru, and subsequently to a new location, Marineland Melanesia on Green Island, in 1972. It was there that Arthur Jones, the founder of Nautilus Sports Medical Industries, met George and arranged for the giant crocodile to be transported to his wildlife sanctuary in Anthony, Florida. The Alligator Farm acquired Gomek from Arthur in 1989, and Gomek remains an iconic example of these dramatic reptile predators.

George was also instrumental in our successful efforts to obtain our current resident Saltwater crocodiles, Maximo and Sydney, from Cairns, and he was also the inspiration for our collection of New Guinea and Oceanic Art. We obtained a number of important pieces of art from George, and his personal collection on Green Island is spectacular. He was quite an accomplished artist himself, and we treasure several works of his art that are housed in our Education Building.

George was born in Peru in 1930. Having lived through the Battle of Britain with his mother in London, George went on to lead an incredible life that included adventures too numerous to recount. His Fly River exploits were beautifully recorded by noted Australian author, Peter Pinney, in his 1976 book, “To Catch a Crocodile.” When we last visited George on Green Island this past April, he was kind enough to comply with our request to complete a quick sketch of a crocodile, which will add to our sentimental collection.

Soon we will add a model of George’s collecting boat, the “Janis B,” created by Tom Rahner, to our Gomek display. This model, along with photographs and fond memories, will extend our appreciation for having known such a remarkable individual as George Craig.

IN MEMORY OF GEORGE J. CRAIG
  • Three hundred miles up the Fly River on a reptile hunting expedition, George Craig and his helpers pause at a makeshift landing.
  • A youthful George Craig and a helper wrestle to bring an ensnared crocodile to bay on one of Craig’s early hunting expeditions on the fly river.
  • Following Gomek’s capture in 1968, Craig and his helpers brought their huge catch back to Craig’s store on the Island of Daru, off the coast of New Guinea.
  • Craig gingerly approaches Gomek for the first time following the capture of the giant reptile.
  • Craig moved more than thirty crocodiles from the Island of Daru to his Green Island attraction, Marineland Melanesia. This photo shows Gomek in the foreground. George Craig is shown standing behind the second crocodile, Oscar, while Anega lies strapped to its pallet above him.
  • A newspaper article from the 1980s reads: “Strong ropes and good knots holding down a giant new guinea crocodile, checked by captor Mr. George Craig on the deck of the trawler Huon Gulf in Cairns yesterday. It is one of three 18 footers each weighing more than a ton, to be taken by barge to Mr. Craig’s Marineland at Green Island off Cairns today.”
  • George Craig, posed beside a New Guinea native totem in 1995, began in 1951 at the age of 21 to hunt crocodiles in Australia’s northern territory on the island of New Guinea. His expeditions up the Fly River took him as far as 400 miles into the interior of one of the least explored lands on earth.
  • Barely a dot in the deep blue waters of the pacific ocean, Green Island lies off the northeastern coast of Australia. The island was the setting for George Craig’s aquatic museum, Marineland Melanesia.
  • George Craig prepares Maximo (formerly known as “Aero”) for transport from the Cairns Crocodile Farm in October 2003. 
  • David Drysdale, owner of the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, with George Craig. 
  • George Craig poses with crocodile skulls. 
  • A crocodile sketch by George Craig, completed in April 2024 as a gift to visitors from The St. Augustine Alligator Farm.